
An illustrated travel diary created from photographs, sketches and memories collected during a week in Cefalù, Sicily.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
handwritten on slide, “Patti and paper" date stamped on slide November 1960
LELYSTAD (ANP) - Het schip De Batavia, een replica van het VOC-schip, is zaterdagochtend vertrokken vanuit Lelystad en wordt naar Amsterdam gesleept. Daar gaat het schip het droogdok in en wordt het voorzien van een stalen ondersteuningsconstructie. Dat is nodig om de replica, die in een kwetsbare conditie is, beter te beschermen en voor lange tijd te kunnen bewaren. Twee sleepboten begeleiden De Batavia op haar reis, die ongeveer zes uur duurt.
De Batavia is een reconstructie van een Oost-Indiëvaarder en is oorspronkelijk gebouwd in 1628. Een jaar later al verging het, op haar eerste reis. De replica is tussen 1985 en 1995 gebouwd in Lelystad, als leer- en werkgelegenheidsproject. Sindsdien zijn volgens een woordvoerder zo'n vijf miljoen mensen komen kijken. In 1999 werd het op een dokschip naar Sydney gevaren voor de Olympische Spelen van 2000.
De constructie, ook wel de stoel genoemd, is bijna 40 meter lang, ruim 15 meter breed en weegt ruim 87 ton. De stoel staat op een ponton dat in het droogdok wordt afgezonken.
MOUNTAIN VIEW (ANP/AFP/BLOOMBERG) - Ook de AI van Google, Gemini, heeft onbedoeld meerdere andere bedrijven gehackt door inloggegevens te raden. Dat gebeurde in mei, heeft het bedrijf bekendgemaakt.
De hacks vonden plaats tijdens tests die werden uitgevoerd door Irregular, een onafhankelijk bedrijf dat cybersecuritybeoordelingen uitvoert. Eerder leidden diezelfde tests tot soortgelijke incidenten bij OpenAI, Anthropic PBC en Meta Platforms Inc. Volgens Irregular maakten de inbreuken allemaal deel uit van hetzelfde probleem. Het bedrijf zou dat eind juli aan de betreffende AI-ontwikkelaars hebben gemeld.
Een recente reeks hacks door AI-systemen heeft wereldwijd een debat ontketend over de toenemende risico's van AI en de maatregelen die nodig zijn om deze te beperken. Anthropic-topman Dario Amodei heeft opgeroepen tot een sectorbrede vertraging in de ontwikkeling van de technologie, een voorstel dat wordt gesteund door OpenAI-topman Sam Altman, Elon Musk en anderen.
His on-pitch triumphs (and off-pitch scandals), her turn as Wagatha Christie … for years, the football power couple have made headlines, despite efforts to keep their lives private. So why are they now about to reveal all on screen?
“If you’d said to me 10 years ago, ‘You’re going to be doing a TV show about the family’, I would have said, ‘No chance’,” Wayne Rooney says. Few would have disagreed. After all, he and his wife Coleen had spent their adult lifetime running away from the public gaze. And not very successfully, at that.
Wayne, a wonderful footballer with the strength of a bull and agility of an acrobat, was often back-page news. He scored 253 goals for Manchester United (overtaking Bobby Charlton’s record), 53 for England (the record until Harry Kane surpassed him in 2023), is still England’s youngest goal scorer (17 years and 317 days), won five Premier League titles, was twice young player of the year and was voted player of the year by both his peers and football journalists in 2009/10.
Continue reading...France and Germany among countries with low Pisa scores, which show how well 15-year-olds use school learning in life
France’s were its worst ever. Germany’s, too. In the Netherlands, results also tumbled to all-time lows. Even in Finland, Europe’s much-vaunted schools champion and a global leader for decades, scores plummeted.
The 2025 Pisa scores, which assess how effectively 15-year-olds apply school-learned knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics and science to real-life situations, have rocked some of western Europe’s education powerhouses.
Continue reading...Sumptuous, late-summer tomatoes cooked with cream and served on toast? Supper is served in 10 … OK, maybe 15 minutes
Forty years ago, an antiquarian bookseller recommended to me Edouard de Pomiane’s La cuisine en dix minutes, a selection of recipes that could be cooked at home in less than 10 minutes. A scientist and food lover, de Pomiane stripped back what was then viewed as a very complicated craft, and also gave the time-poor an opportunity to cook and enjoy a good meal made from good ingredients. This was the first recipe I cooked from that book, and it is still a great favourite that has punctuated my menus ever since.
Henry Harris is chef/co-owner of Bouchon Racine, London EC1. His book, The Racine Effect, is published by Quadrille at £40. To order a copy for £36, go to guardianbookshop.com
Continue reading...The singer-songwriter’s new album sprinkles her 90s alt-fuzz with sweet melodies, while Asif Kapadia wraps up the seminal series. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews
Continue reading...Thinktank calls on chancellor to end housing allowance freeze with typical two-bedroom household facing £158 week shortfall amid rent rises
More than 1.1 million low-income families in rented homes face a “cost of housing” crunch without action from John Healey in next month’s budget, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has warned.
Local housing allowance (LHA) has been frozen in cash terms since autumn 2024.
Continue reading...After summer’s heatwaves, prepare for winter of storms and heavy rain, with millions of UK homes at risk of flooding
The accelerating climate crisis and this year’s record-breaking El Niño mean that, although the summer’s heatwaves are still fresh in the memory, households in the UK are already being told to prepare for a potentially destructive winter of storms and heavy rain – leaving millions of homes at risk of flooding.
Government action is needed to improve flood defences and build reliance on a national and regional level. But with the UK’s flood season just weeks away, the Guardian spoke to experts to find out what action communities and individuals can take to make their neighbourhoods and homes more resilient, from self-closing airbricks to deflated children’s footballs.
Continue reading...Amid record-shattering heatwaves and popular demand for climate action, why are politicians often timid or in denial?
It was, according to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, the “summer of truth”. Climate chaos ripped through Europe and the northern hemisphere, sending heat records tumbling, scorching crops in the fields, burning forests, emptying rivers and reservoirs, warping train tracks, melting roads and killing about 35,000 people in Europe alone.
The EU has estimated the damage at about €180bn, and the full bill is yet to arrive: harvests have been depleted, which will probably raise food price inflation, and expensive repairs to infrastructure have only just begun.
Continue reading...Instead, constrain it legally and fight it politically. The world is watching
Far-right nationalist populist parties are making the running everywhere from Washington to Warsaw. So why be so alarmed about a little regional electoral victory for one such party, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), in one federal state, Saxony-Anhalt? “Because it’s Germany!” is the almost instinctive answer in many heads around the world.
But that “because it’s Germany” needs to be taken apart, like the segments of an orange. Yes, because of Adolf Hitler, two dictatorships (Nazi Germany until 1945, communist-ruled East Germany until 1989) and two world wars. And yes, some of the language used by the AfD will give anyone familiar with Nazi rhetoric a cold shudder down the spine.
Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist. His new book, Europe in 7 1/2 Chapters, is published in October
Continue reading...Aardman’s woolly hero reckons with a mysterious beast and Abi Morgan’s lawyers-in-love TV drama gets a Manchester-set reboot
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom
Out now
The beloved Wallace and Gromit spin-off character returns to topline another film, with a Halloween-themed adventure involving the destruction of a pumpkin patch and a mysterious beast on the loose. Naturally, our hero turns to weird science to address matters.
David (left), 34, a children’s doctor, meets Dec, 31, a culture and sex writer
What were you hoping for?
A sweet-hearted madman who would make me belly laugh.